If you’re a politician, don’t you dare fall on the wrong side of the LeBron issue. That’s the very definition of political suicide in this state.

Republican gubernatorial candidate John Kasich’s heart was probably in the right place when he told Alan Colmes of FOX News that he was more concerned with the loss of jobs in Ohio than with LeBron’s impending decision. But then he went on to say, “I’m not singing any chorus for LeBron James.”

He may as well have just punted a puppy.

By the way, he was talking about the chorus of Cleveland bigwigs in this video.

Honestly, refusing to participate was probably a good call, given the national mockery that the video enjoyed. But you don’t say it out loud, for heaven’s sake. That just makes you look like the Scrooge of Sports.

Of course, Kasich’s comments had Ohio Dems attacking him in numbers that would put to shame the endless celebrity brigade that New York has sent after LeBron.

They even made a parody site naming Kasich the “founder and president” of a mythical group called “Ohioans Against LeBron.”

Fortunately, Kasich was quickly upstaged by his campaign manager, who said this about Ohio’s current governor, Ted Strickland: “Having grown up in a chicken shack on Duck Run, he has all but ignored our cities’ economies and their workers.”

My theory: campaign spokesman Rob Nichols foresaw the political mess his boss had just stepped in, and took swift action by proceeding to say something even more offensive to a (mostly provincial) Ohio.

Pretty ingenious, right?

Needless to say, lambasting LeBron and taunting an opponent for his impoverished rural beginnings are not the best recipe for political success in Ohio.